Manchester City Photo: Photosport
Manchester City came from behind to beat Club Brugge 3-1 and secure their place in the Champions League playoffs, as big guns Real Madrid, Bayern Munich and Paris St Germain also won to progress, while AC Milan and Juventus will join them despite both losing.
A goal-stacked night of 18 simultaneous kick-offs in the final group matchday of the competition's new format, eventually ended as the traditional format usually ended - with all the big guns still alive.
Liverpool and Barcelona were the only teams already guaranteed a place in the top eight and automatic progress to the round of 16 and they stayed first and second respectively despite Liverpool losing 3-2 to PSV Eindhoven and Barca drawing 2-2 with Atalanta. Joining them are Arsenal, Inter Milan, Atletico Madrid, Bayer Leverkusen, Aston Villa and Lille, who produced the performance of the night to thrash Feyenoord 6-1.
Although they eventually progressed reasonably comfortably, it was anything but for Man City at the Etihad. The 2023 European champions were exposed just before halftime when Raphael Onyedika brilliantly finished off a Brugge sweeping move.
Mateo Kovacic pulled one back for City early in the second half but at that stage they were still heading out of the competition and they needed an own goal by Joel Ordonez to get the lead and then a third by Savinho to relax.
PSG, who were in 22nd place and in danger of missing out at kickoff, avoided a nervous night by racing into a 3-0 halftime lead at Stuttgart. Bradley Barcola opened the scoring and a hat-trick for in-form Ousmane Dembele completed the 4-1 win.
It was the same score for Atletico Madrid at Salzburg. The visitors were helped by two goals for Antoine Griezmann.
Sent off
Lautaro Martinez got all three goals for Inter Milan in their 3-0 victory over Monaco, who had Christian Mawissa sent off after 12 minutes, but still made the playoffs.
Arsenal came from behind to win 2-1 at Girona and rubber-stamp their third-placed finish, while Leverkusen also avoided the two-legged play-offs by beating Sparta Prague 2-0 to finish sixth.
Lille began the day in 12th but ended in seventh after thumping Feyenoord, who contributed a remarkable three own goals to those scored by Osame Sahraoui, Jonathan David and Remy Cabella.
Real Madrid, seeking to extend their record 15 European titles, secured their playoff slot with a 3-0 win over Brest courtesy of two goals from Rodrygo and another by Jude Bellingham.
It was a second successive defeat for Brest but their flying start to the campaign proved enough for them to make the playoffs.
Aston Villa led Celtic 2-0 with two Morgan Rogers goals inside the first five minutes but two for Adam Idah made it level at halftime.
Ollie Watkins, who missed a penalty, then restored the lead and Rogers completed his hat-trick at the death to lift Villa into the top eight
AC Milan began the day in sixth but goals by Martin Baturina and Marko Pjaca combined with an early red card for gave Dinamo Zagreb a 2-1 that dropped the Italians into the playoff, but still left Zagreb missing out on joining them by one place on goal difference.
Bayern Munich beat Slovan Bratislava 3-1 with goals by Thomas Mueller, Harry Kane and Kingsley Coman while Benfica had an impressive 2-0 win at Juventus, a result that left both teams in the playoffs.
The draw for the two-legged next stage takes place on Friday, where, unlike in previous years, teams from the same country and group can meet.
Those games will be played on February 11/12 and 18/19 and the eight winners will then meet the eight top-ranked teams from the group stage in the round of 16 - with the seeded draw for that made on 21 February.
The final is in Munich on 31 May.
Final Champions League table
Top eight sides in the league phase qualify automatically for the round of 16:
1. Liverpool
2. Barcelona
3. Arsenal
4. Inter Milan
5. Atletico Madrid
6. Bayer Leverkusen
7. Lille
8. Aston Villa
Teams finishing in ninth to 24th place go to the two-legged knockout playoffs:
9. Atalanta
10. Borussia Dortmund
11. Real Madrid
12. Bayern Munich
13. AC Milan
14. PSV Eindhoven
15. Paris St Germain
16. Benfica
17. Monaco
18. Brest
19. Feyenoord
20. Juventus
21. Celtic
22. Manchester City
23. Sporting
24. Club Brugge
Teams from 25th to 36 are out of the competition:
25. Dinamo Zagreb
26. VfB Stuttgart
27. Shakhtar Donetsk
28. Bologna
29. Red Star Belgrade
30. Sturm Graz
31. Sparta Prague
32. RB Leipzig
33. Girona
34. RB Salzburg
35. Slovan Bratislava
36. Young Boys
The draw for knockout playoffs will take place on January 31.
- Reuters
